All Over Albany

Here's how New York State's new paid family leave program will work

A screengrab from the state's explainer site.

New York State's new paid family leave program will allow people to start taking leave January 1. And this week the Cuomo admin released a walkthrough of how the program will work. Press release blurbage:

Starting January 1, 2018, Paid Family Leave will provide employees with wage replacement and job protection to help them bond with a child, care for a close relative with a serious health condition, or help relieve family pressures when someone is deployed abroad on active military service. Employees are also entitled to be reinstated to their job when their leave ends and to the continuation of their health insurance during their leave.

The program will be phased in over the next four years. Starting in 2018, employees will be able to take eight weeks of leave at 50 percent of their weekly wage. Those numbers will increase annually until 2021, when it's 12 weeks at 67 percent.

The leave program is paid for by payroll deductions as part of the disability policies that employers carry. Those deductions can start this month. (They're capped at 0.126 percent of an employee's weekly wage.)

As with any program like this, there are a bunch of details for both employees and employers. And it will be worth studying those details to understand eligibility (starts after 26 weeks for those who work 20 hour or more per week) and other related info. The state has posted specific explainers for employees, employers, and health care providers.

For example, there's this important detail from the explainer for employees: "If you are a public employee, your employer may opt into the program. Public employees who are represented by a union may be covered if Paid Family Leave is collectively bargained."

So read up and know the details.